CVS Company Helped Lilly Promote Zyprexa
I’m not even sure how to explain the relationship between Lilly and a subsidiary of CVS, the huge pharmacy company, so I’ll just pinch from Bloomberg’s fine coverage:
“A unit of CVS Caremark Corp. used its access to doctors to market Eli Lilly & Co.’s Zyprexa antipsychotic while it was under contract to bargain with the drug maker on behalf of health insurers, internal Lilly files disclosed in a multibillion-dollar lawsuit by insurers show.
“The subsidiary of CVS, the largest US drugstore chain, touted Zyprexa starting in 2003, according to e-mails made public by lawyers suing Lilly for overpayment. CVS’s AdvancePCS, a pharmacy benefit manager, or PBM, offered to send 120,000 letters to doctors promoting the drug, Lilly’s top-seller with $4.7 billion in sales last year, according to a confidential 2004 proposal. The CVS unit said it would charge $5 per letter.
“CVS’s contracts with insurers and pensions meanwhile place it in an adversarial posture with Lilly, requiring it to use its buying power as leverage in drug-price negotiations.
“‘The problem is that PBMs are negotiating these hidden deals while at the same time telling employers that they represent them at the negotiating table,’ said Gerry Purcell, a former PBM executive who advises companies on their drug plans. ‘These documents will add fuel to the perception that the companies and the PBMs are in cahoots with each other.’”
I don’t know who’s more at-fault here–Lilly or CVS–but these kinds of relationships certainly cannot be much good for patients or doctors.
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